G.O.P. Tries Tactic to Derail Bill

House Republicans are making one last effort to derail the Democrats’ health care legislation. The chamber is packed, with staff members lining the inside walls.

The Republican whip, Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, has said the magic words: “I have a motion to recommit at the desk.”

The speaker pro tempore, Representative David R. Obey, Democrat of Wisconsin, has just confirmed that Mr. Cantor opposes the legislation, which is prerequisite for seeking to recommit a bill.

“Any physician in America will tell you that the simplest way to reduce health care costs is to enact real medical liability reform,” Mr. Cantor said.

A motion to recommit essentially seeks to block a vote on a bill by sending it back for changes. But its real purpose is to stall, if not kill, a measure. Motions to recommit are often politically devious, carefully designed to bait members of the majority to vote in favor of it.

Often a vote against a motion to recommit can be construed in ways that would benefit political opponents.

House Republicans are describing their motion as seeking limits to medical malpractice lawsuits and as protecting elderly Americans from cuts in Medicare spending.

Although they may later be accused of supporting trial lawyers by blocking medical malpractice reform and of voting against senior citizens by supporting spending cuts in Medicare, the Democrats are unlikely to take the bait.

A vote is imminent.

But already Democrats are hitting back. Representative Bruce L. Braley, Democrat of Iowa, is accusing the Republicans of not standing up for patients’ rights.

A Republican alternative bill was rejected 258 to 175. Representative Timothy Johnson of Illinois was the only Republican to vote against his party’s plan. Here’s the vote breakdown.